Publication News: Quail Bell Magazine

I'm so excited to announce that another one of my stories is forthcoming in a literary magazine!

Quail Bell Magazine has accepted my piece "Vixen" for publication, and I'm thrilled to be able to share this utterly weird short story with you all. This is a magazine that's run and read by self-described "fairy punks", which is one of the greatest labels I've ever seen.

"Vixen" was originally written for—believe it or not—a school assignment. We were told to write stories with such-and-such elements as part of our gothic literature unit, and being the eccentric, curriculum-hating student I am, I decided that I wanted to subvert the 'traditional' gothic mold that our teacher intended for us.

Enter the strange but awfully cool notion of the Asian gothic aesthetic. Think about it: don't other cultures have just as much room for the macabre and spectral? Just let the idea simmer in your head; it gets pretty darn awesome.

Specifically, I wanted to work with Korean gothic.

I started playing around with this straightaway, and before long I'd come up with a spooky little tale about a kumiho (a Korean nine-tailed fox), a girl, and the village they prey on. It's basically my exploration of the boundary between girl and monster, and whether that boundary can start to blur and warp until it's barely there at all.

(One of my favorite subjects to write about, if you haven't all noticed already.)

Anyway, please do keep an eye out for the piece, and I hope you enjoy it! Happy reading.